repairing aluminum A/C tubing.

Background: My 96 Impala kept leaking refrigerant about once every few years. The culprit is the high side valve. Its one of those rubber ball thingys, not the replacable schrader. In attempting to unscrew it from the aluminum tube, it of course ripped a hole in the tubing despite all my clamping and holding.

Normally I would order a new hose... except that these come as a set of high/low. I don't know if anyone remembers my fiasco replacing the compressor last year. It pretty much requires sacrificial lambs and and act of god to replace it. Not having to replace that hose would be wonderful, especially because the hole I made is as accessible as the air filter.

Its the high side, so what about cutting out a section of the hard line and replacing it? Compression fittings? Anneal and flare? Solder/braze?

Compression fittings or a single flare and brass union(you might even be able to find something suitable at home depot with the gas fittings) would probably be acceptable. Go talk to guy at a HVAC supply shop, though he'll likely only be able to hook you up with the screw on style ports, not an issue if you have good gauges suitable for working with commercial refrigeration systems and old R12 car systems.

yes, but if you do use those gauges on 134A, you cant use them again on any other refrigerant until they are cleaned. my understanding is the oils in 134A will coagulate (turn to peanut butter) with other oils.

the answer is simple. its high side, almost useless as a port unless you need to check for a bad orifice/expansion valve. i say JB the whole thing, the opening, the split, and down the tube in both directions about 2 inches, all the way around. encase the entire area in JB. if you ever need to tap into that line again, then you may need to replace it. but if you just wanna dump 134 in it and go, thats what id do.

-J0N

Compression is the accepted method. NAPA has repair kits based on line size.

I've played with some Aluminum solder made just for that purpose...it isn't cheap though.

solfly wrote: Compression is the accepted method. NAPA has repair kits based on line size.

Awesome.... thanks all!